The invention relates generally to photography, and more particularly to a camera with a self-timer that is otherwise referred to as a delayed action shutter release or delayed action device.
Film and cameras that are all in one, commonly referred to as disposable single-use or one-time-use cameras, have become well known. The one-time-use camera is a simple point-and-shoot type camera comprising a conventional film cartridge within a cartridge receiving chamber in a main body part, an unexposed film roll prewound from the film cartridge onto a film supply spool within a film supply chamber in the main body part, a film-exposing backframe opening between the cartridge receiving and film supply chambers in the main body part, a fixed-focus taking lens, a film metering mechanism with a rotatably supported metering sprocket that has respective sprocket teeth for engaging the filmstrip at successive film perforations, a manually rotatable film winding thumbwheel coaxially engaged with a film winding spool inside the film cartridge, a single-blade shutter, a manually depressible shutter release button, an exposure counter wheel that has a numerical series of evenly spaced exposure count indicia and is incrementally rotated to successively view the exposure count indicia, an anti-backup pawl that engages the exposure counter wheel to prevent its reverse rotation, a direct see-through viewfinder having front and rear viewfinder lenses, and in some models an electronic flash. A pair of separate front and rear cover parts house the main body part between them to complete the camera. The rear cover part connects to the main body part and/or to the front cover part to make the main body part light-tight. A decorative cardboard outer box or label at least partially covers the front and rear cover parts and has respective openings for the taking lens, etc.
After a picture is taken with the one-time-use camera by manually depressing the shutter release button, the photographer manually rotates the thumbwheel in a film winding direction to similarly rotate the film winding spool inside the film cartridge. This winds an exposed frame of the filmstrip from the backframe opening into the film cartridge and advances an unexposed frame of the filmstrip from the unexposed film roll to the backframe opening. The rewinding movement of the filmstrip the equivalent of slightly more than one frame width rotates the metering sprocket in engagement with the filmstrip to decrement the exposure counter wheel to its next lower-numbered indicia and to pivot a metering lever into engagement with the thumbwheel in order to prevent further manual rotation of the thumbwheel in the film winding direction. Manually depressing the shutter release button to take another picture pivots the metering lever out of engagement with the thumbwheel to permit renewed rotation of the thumbwheel in the film winding direction. When the maximum number of exposures available on the filmstrip have been made and the filmstrip is completely wound into the film cartridge, the one-time-use camera is given to a photofinisher who breaks away a cover door portion of the rear cover part from the main body part and removes the film cartridge with the exposed filmstrip from the cartridge receiving chamber. Then, he removes the exposed filmstrip from the film cartridge to develop the latent images and make prints for the customer.
Typically, one-time-use cameras do not include a self-timer, i.e. a delayed action shutter release, which is manually actuated to automatically initiate picture-taking after a predetermined interval of time has elapsed following the actuation. The predetermined interval of time allows one to become a part of the scene to be photographed after he or she has manually actuated the self-timer.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,514 issued Aug. 31, 1999 discloses a one-time-use camera with a self-timer. The self-timer is built into the camera and includes a number of gears and an escapement, and therefore significantly increases the cost of the camera and is relatively complex.
According to one aspect of the invention, a camera comprising a shutter release button that is depressible to initiate picture-taking, and a self-timer for automatically initiating picture-taking after a predetermined interval of time has elapsed, is characterized in that:
the self-timer is flexible and resilient to be manually deformable from a normal state to a deformed state and to have the capability of automatically returning to the normal state from the deformed state after the predetermined interval of time has elapsed; and
a support in the vicinity of the shutter release button is constructed to receive the self-timer in the deformed state in order to position the self-timer raised from the shutter release button, but to permit the self-timer to automatically return to the normal state after the predetermined interval of time has elapsed in order to depress the shutter release button to initiate picture taking, and to permit removal of the self-timer from the support in order to use the shutter release button without the self-timer or to reuse the self-timer.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method of using a delayed action shutter release with a shutter release button that is manually depressible to initiate picture-taking in order to automatically initiate picture-taking after a predetermined interval of time has elapsed, comprises:
deforming a resilient elastic piece, which serves as the delayed action shutter release, from a normal state to a deformed state to allow the resilient elastic piece to automatically return to the normal state from the deformed state after the predetermined interval of time has elapsed; and
positioning the resilient elastic piece in the deformed state raised slightly from the shutter release button to allow the resilient elastic piece to automatically return to the normal state after the predetermined interval of time has elapsed in order to cause the elastic piece to depress the shutter release button to initiate picture taking.